Exclusive: Artist Tim Burgard Tells What it Was Like Working on BATMAN & ROBIN

Recently I did a post on Batman & Robin and Tim Burgard very kindly sent me some illustrations while working on the film. In the course of the conversations he shared some gut-busting stories about what it was like in the art department, so here they are along with some exclusive artwork from the film.

Maurice Mitchell: You have a design for Poison Ivy that is pretty different from the final film. Was it considered?
Tim Burgard: Because the costume department didn't release their costume designs to me for me to do my job I went ahead and did their job first. You can see from my boards that I decided to use Poison Ivy's original comic book costume, which was better than the film version in my opinion.

MM: I see some of these storyboards show Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, but several actors were considered for the role. How late in the production was he cast?
TB: When I started they had not changed the script to reflect Arnold as Mr. Freeze. Patrick Stewart was their first choice and his dialog was written in faux Shakespearean. I annoyed everybody but tickled myself constantly by reading the flowery Mr. Freeze lines out loud in my pretty-good "Arnold" voice. Priceless. I'm still sorry they would not let me keep my old script. If they had the guts to make Arnold say those lines it would have saved the movie (well, made it a comedy).

MM: You mentioned that you almost got fired from Batman & Robin?
TB: Batgirl rode a cycle, not walk down a fashion catwalk, so I did this practical outfit.

I did a sketch, just as a joke (or a cry for help) to pass around the art department, that almost got me fired off of "Batman and Robin" on week one. Silverstone appeared on the Oscar's the Sunday night before I started boarding on the film on the Warners lot, and she seemed completely stoned, enormously round and covered in some pink fluffy dress like she rolled over several times in cotton candy.

My first job was to draw her in a scene and there was no reconciling the costume that they were planning with the girl I watched the night before. Like Rosanne Barr strutting in the Victoria Secret fashion show. Then I heard Alicia was actually on the lot with the costumers cinching her into a corset to get the measurement for a costume she would have to lose weight to fit in. So in my frustration I drew a cartoon.

I had it tacked up above my desk in the artist's room where passers by couldn't get a direct look at it. Little did I know that one of the art directors or PAs loved the cartoon so much that he had to have his own copy. After I went home he made a color copy and put it up in his cubical in the main art department. Where everyone can see it. See where I'm going? Bob Ringwald, the costume designer, saw it and had a fit. Luckily I hadn't signed the cartoon and my fan didn't give me up.

3 comments:

I feel dumber for reading this. Comparing Alicia Silverstone to Roseanne and calling her "enormously round" is ludicrous. He acts like she was 200LBS. Sharing that offensive sketch twenty years later says more about him than her. Alicia looks amazing these days - my guess is the nearly 20 years looks better on her than the "artist".

What is Film Sketchr?

This blog is about the often unseen world of concept design and storyboarding in science-fiction films and television. These artists work to bring the vision of the writer and director to life. My hope is you'll learn a little bit more about them. If you're an artist I hope you find inspiration from the talented artists featured.

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